


A Tale From Kinloch Hold

by Lukacola



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Angst, Circle of Magi, Drabbles, Gen, Kinloch Hold (Dragon Age), Mageborn children, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Referenced Childbirth, my aim is to break hearts in less than 1k words
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 19:55:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21185111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukacola/pseuds/Lukacola
Summary: All children born to circle mages are automatically the property of the Chantry. Soon enough they'll come for this one, but his mother is in no shape to be able to say goodbye to him. Oren might just be a tired old spirit healer, but he's doing his best to try and make things better.





	A Tale From Kinloch Hold

The flickering of the candlelight was never actually enough to see properly by in the early hours of the morning. Though, trapped within the deepest confines of the circle tower Oren had almost stopped bothering to notice the time anyway, so to him it really didn’t make that much of a difference. He was already half blind at the best of times. He was used to it.

But the weight of the last few days still rested on his shoulders, and really it was that which was letting the weariness shine through. Not that the wailing of the newborn that was currently in his care helped at all. Barely half a day old, and the sounds were still so desperate and so miserable… so utterly heartbreaking… that as he paced back and forth through this tiny space he could almost feel it echoing right throughout his own soul too. The boy cradled gently in his arms nonetheless. He was doing his very best to help him, but none of it seemed to make anything better at all, no matter what he tried the cries continued. Ceaseless and endless. On and on. 

It felt like he hadn’t been around such a small person in a very long time, even if births weren’t exactly rare here, and this child was bigger than most of them at that. The labour had taken almost three days, and though the boy was healthy they still worried about his mother. But right now Ashi had the others with her, and they knew what they were doing, despite how badly this was wearing on all of them. Oren wasn’t sure entirely how this had ended up being his job, but he was here. He couldn’t really blame the babe for screaming either. Not with everything that had already happened, and especially not with what was about to happen next. 

It was better not to think about any of that right now. He knew that. He’d been here long enough. It was better just to get the night over with and not risk getting attached. Even if they really did say that about almost everything here, didn’t they? That was just how life was, in Kinloch. You cared and then inevitably you got your heart broken. But despite all of that, everyone knew that common sense was never really Oren’s strong suit, didn’t they?

And so, when he realised that the pacing was not going to work, He moved instead to sit down. Ignoring the way his hip ached with each movement, and how the sounds rang in his ears almost endlessly. With the babe still cradled to him, still crying that same, endless, high pitched cry, he began to talk. Softly, and quietly enough that that it was barely heard at all above the noise, and about nothing at all really, not at first. He was just talking. But eventually, almost without his realising it, they did start to take on a meaning, and with it his chest began to take on the same familiar ache that it had made at home throughout his life. He continued even with it, gaze turned out to watch the solitary candle as it flickered.

“-And we’re all little, really. When you think about it. No matter who you are, or where you’re from. No matter what you’ve done in your life. We’re all just so tiny. And you know what? That’s alright actually. Because no matter how small you might feel… in the end, you’re here… and in itself, the odds of that were so unlikely that really it should be called a miracle.” 

He paused, only for a moment to glance to the door, before simply sighing. “It’s not going to be an easy one. Not that it ever really is, but you deserve better than this, you know. Maybe a lot of people are going to tell you that you don’t, but you can’t believe them, not for one moment. You just have to keep on going, wherever you might end up. You just keep going forward… out and out and out, into the night and far away. You’ll go wherever life takes you, and that’s okay. That’s alright. That’s good. They might try to fill your head with nonsense, but you’ll stay strong through it. Because you’ve got that stubborn nature right in your blood. Just like your mother, and your father… and all the ones that came before them too. Takes a stubbornness for people like that to survive for this long, when the world comes biting at your ankles with each and every twist and turn. But they made it long enough to make you, and you’ll make it too… and whoever you’re going to grow up to be… you’ll make them so proud.”

It was only then that he looked down once more, with a quiet realisation that the wailing had actually drawn to a stop some moments previously, to see the boy already dozing in his arms. A very quiet chuckle managed to escape him with the sight, but he didn’t move just yet. Instead simply lowering his voice to a whisper, watching the tiny face instead now. 

“You can’t ever let them tell you that you weren’t loved, kid. You always will be. Even if they aren’t here to say it themselves… and even if they might never be. So loved. Don’t you ever go forgetting it.”


End file.
